Military personnel, police, security agents, detectives, bomb squads, and other persons involved in occupations presenting a risk of injury from gunshots, explosions, shrapnel, stabbing and impact from projectiles or other munitions have worn various types of vests or other protective garments. Such garments may be made from a high strength fiber reinforced or woven fabric or material, including, for example, aramide or similar extremely strong fibers, which resist penetration by knives, bullets, blades, and explosive forces or projectiles. Such fabrics or materials are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,776,838 (Dellinger), U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,907 (Brown), U.S. Pat. No. 6,219,842 (Bachner), and U.S. Pat. No. 6,127,291 (Coppage), which are sold under several trade names, including Kevlar. The foregoing patents, and those discussed throughout this application are hereby are incorporated herein by reference.
As noted in one or more of the foregoing patents, the fabrics or garments include one or more layers of a high strength woven polymer oriented in one or more directions in the fabric. Multiple layers reinforce the strength of the fabric or the vest or other garment into which it is manufactured.
Some patentees incorporate one or more aramide layers into different portions of the garment, such as a vest, in order to add protection against more powerful projectiles. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,042 (Schuster) discusses protective clothing having multiple layers of flat textile structures, in which one side of one or more layers has a ceramic coating applied by plasma spraying. The layers may be woven fabrics made from aramide fibers. According to the patentees, however, a ceramic coating thickness of up to about 100μ, and preferably 20-40μ should be applied, resulting in a coating having substantial weight per unit area. A protective garment, according to this patentee, may include 25 inner layers of an aramide fiber woven fabric with a ceramic coating applied by plasma spraying, and about 10 outer layers of aramide fabric lacking a ceramic coating. The fabric may weigh more than 200 g/m2, which would make it bulky, stiff, heavy and uncomfortable for many law enforcement, military, or other protective uses.
It is therefore an object to provide an improved, lighter weight fabric which repels bullets, projectiles, shrapnel, and cuts and slashes.